The Aftermath by Jen Alexander

The Aftermath
(Aftermath, #1)
by Jen Alexander
Released |August 26th 2014 by Harlequin Teen|
Edition |Earc|
Source |Netgalley|
Add to Goodreads

Sometimes, I dream that I'm someone else.
A girl with dark hair who doesn't worry about hunger
or thirst or running from flesh-eaters.
In her world, those sorts of things don't exist.
Since the spring of 2036, when the world changed forever, Claudia and a small clan of survivors have roamed the streets of a very altered Nashville: polluted and desolate, except for the ever-present threat of cannibal Hoarders. Together they must undergo punishing tests of endurance and psychological challenge sometimes with devastating consequences all just to live another day.
With food and water in dwindling supply, and with danger lurking around every corner, no one can be trusted. And as her world starts to make less and less sense, Claudia begins to realize something terrifying: she is just a pawn in some sort of game, and all of her actions are being controlled from afar by a mysterious gamer. So when she meets a maddening and fascinating outsider named Declan, who claims to be a game moderator, she must decide whether to join him in exchange for protection and access to the border.
If they play the game right, they are each other's best hope for survival and a life beyond the only world Claudia's ever known: the terrifying live-action game known as The Aftermath.

Let me first start of saying that I do not think that this book is meant for everyone. If you're into the whole gaming thing and dystopian/post apocalyptic type books then I think you should give it a try, but if you're not into those things then I don't think that you'd enjoy this book. If you've read the Eye of Minds by James Dashner and enjoyed that, then you may enjoy this one as well. But anyways, I just thought I'd throw that out there :) On to the review!


I thought the Aftermath was a good read. At first, it took me a little while to get into the book because of all the different elements going on within the story. You're learning all the aspects of the world and then you have the main character Claudia that keeps flashing into the mind of another girl who we later find out to be her gamer. The girl that's controlling all her moves. I really felt bad for Claudia because she's not the person she always thought she was. One blow to the head, slowly starts bringing back pieces of her memory. I mean, how would you feel if you thought the world ended and are just trying to survive it, but find out that that's a lie and you're just a pawn in a game. Like I stated before, there were a lot of different elements that made up this book. One of my favorites was the game itself which was created as a way to 'stop violence'. But let's just say that it's not all it's cracked up to be. It's hard to tell much more without giving away spoilers.

I liked Claudia and thought that she was a strong character and when Declan came along I started enjoying the book that much more. I liked Declan and the small romance that developed between them. I say small, because the book didn't focus heavily on the romance, but all the same, it was still there. Overall, I thought the book was good. It was a bit gritty, but it was also suspenseful and fast paced. There was a ton of action and I loved the feeling of survival the book had. And that twist at the end was just awesome! I'd definitely recommend the story to people who like gaming stories, but there was much more to the book than just being inside of a game.